Installment coupon and ledger record



Nov. 29, 1960 R. J. LAYTON INSTALLMENT coupon 1mm LEDGER RECORD Filed April 22, 1959 INVENTOR. mom/ea J. LHFIVM United States Patent INSTALLMENT COUPON AND LEDGER RECORD Richard J. Layton, Indianapolis, Ind., assiguor to The Rough Notes Company, Inc., Indianapolis, Ind., a corporation Filed Apr. 22, 1959, Ser. No. 808,119

3 Claims. (Cl. 28224) This invention relates generally to installment payment control forms and in particular to preprinted coupon and ledger record blanks from which payment coupon books and ledger records can be assembled with minimum chance for error in transcribing information to the coupons, stubs and ledger record.

Installment payments are conventionally mailed in to the lender accompanied by a coupon indicating the month of payment, the account number, etc. These coupons are torn from a booklet of such coupons by the payer one-by-one as each months payments are made. When multiple typing or writing is necessary in preparing these booklets and the ledger record corresponding to each coupon booklet, the chances for error in setting out the proper information, such as account numbers and amounts, ismultiplied. i

.The coupons are preprinted with the'name of each month and after typing or writing need only be arranged in proper sequence, beginning with the proper month, and stapled to form the contents-ofthe coupon book. The book thus includes a stub to be used as the buyers record and a coupon to be sent to the seller with payment. The stub and the coupon itself are separated by a perforated line. No additional marking or punching on the coupons are necessary after the original typing or writing.

The ledger sheet, prepunched for insertion into the sellers receivables binder, is prepared at the same time the coupons are prepared. The preparation of both at one time is accomplished through use of carbon paper or the like.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a coupon book and ledger sheet blank arrangement permitting the required coupon book and ledger sheet to be prepared and assembled with a minimum of effort and with maximum accuracy.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a blank arrangement of the type referred to which can be completed without typing or writing multiple, separate copies, thereby reducing clerical errors.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a blank arrangement of the type referred to which requires no punching or perforating subsequent to assembly of the coupon booklet.

The full nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanying drawings and the following description and claims:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of the blank arrangement having portions broken away to illustrate the composition of the stack.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view illustrating the removal of coupons from the stack.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a coupon book formed from the blank.

Referring initially to Fig. 1, there is shown a stack of coupon blanks, the upper one of which is indicated at 10, the next coupon blank in the stack being indicated at 11. A sheet of unperforated carbon 12 is interposed "ice between each of the coupon blanks. As indicated at 13, each of the carbons has a cutaway portion at its central lower margin. Each of the coupon blanks and the un-. derlying ledger page to be subsequently described are provided with a horizontal perforation 14 adjacent its upper margin and a vertical perforation 16, the portion of the blank between the perforation 14 and the lower blank margin is equally divided into three horizontal strips by means of perforations 17 and 18.

The sheet underlying the last coupon blank, shown fragmentarily at 19, is unperforated and carries carbon duplicating material only along a narrow band indicated at 21. This band of duplicating material serves to transfer to the heading of the underlying ledger sheet the title of the account, account number and other identifying data as such data' is typed or written across the top of the topmost coupon blank. Underlying the sheet 19 is a ledger page 22 which may be provided with suitable apertures 22a for binding into a ledger book. The coupons are each imprinted with an indication of a calendar month as indicated at 23. Assuming four coupon blanks are present in the stack, the uppermost coupon blank may be imprinted to indicate January, May and September. The next underlying coupon blank may be imprinted with February, June and October. The calendar month indication is thus such that by tearing the coupons from the blank first along the perforations 17 and then along the perforations 18, the resulting coupon stacks may be superposed upon each other to provide a coupon booklet in which the calendar months are consecutively indicated from January to December. Initially the coupon blank stack shown in Fig. i may be'inserted into a typewriter and the requireddata typed thereon, The identifying data in the uppermost-stack of coupons will be imprinted on the ledger sheet through the medium of duplicating material 21. A single typing operation of each row of coupons serves to properly fill in each one of the coupons in the stack. After the typing or writing operation is completed, the coupons may be removed by first folding the stub portion 26 at the perforation 14. The bottom central portion adjacent the cutout 13 may then be gripped firmly, and by bringing the hands together and then snapping them apart, the stub portion 26 and the carbons will be removed from the stack, leaving only the perforated coupon blanks and the ledger page. The coupons may then be separated along the perforations 17 and 18, superposed upon each other and formed into a coupon booklet as indicated in Fig. 3. A cover 27 may be applied to the coupon stack, the coupons and the cover being held in place by the application of staples 28.

The ledger page 22, which is separated from the coupon blanks before their division along the perforations 17 and 18 may be bound in a suitable ledger book. The vertical perforation 16 permits the coupons to be individually detached from the booklet as payments are made, with the portion of the coupon to the left of the perforation 16 remaining as a stub and providing a record for the payor.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that the forms or blanks herein described provide a means for preparing payment coupon books accurately and with a minimum of labor. Since one typing or writing operation only is required to fill in the coupons, eliminating the necessity of making additional separate coupons, the opportunities for error in copying are materially reduced.

While the invention has been disclosed and described in some detail in the drawings and foregoing description, they are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive in character, as modifications may readily suggest themselves to persons skilled in this art and within the '47 broad scope of the invention, reference being had to the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:

1. A pre-printed coupon blank assembly adapted to form a couponbook comprising a series of stacked coupon blanks each having a series of horizontal perforations dividing the blanks into an uppe'r stub portion and a plurality of coupons, each of said blanks having a vertical perforation terminating at the upper one of said horizontal perforations, an unperforated duplicating sheet underlying each of said coupon blanks and having a cut-away section at their central lower margins, a ledger or record sheet underlying the last blank in said coupon blank stack having only a single horizontal perforation aligned with the uppermost of the horizontal perforations on said coupon blanks, the unperforated duplicating sheet between the last blank in said coupon blank stack and said ledger sheet having duplicating material only in a narrow band thereacross, whereby information may be inscribed on said blanks and the pertinent portion of said information transferred to said ledger sheet in a single operation and the duplicating sheets removed by tearing the coupon blanks at their upper stub portion, the horizontal perforations facilitating separation of said coupon blanks into individual coupons, the vertical perforation on the coupon blanks defining individual coupon stubs.

2. A coupon blank assembly adapted to form a coupon book comprising a series of stacked coupon blanks each having a series of longitudinal perforations dividing the blanks into an upper stub portion and a plurality of coupons, each of said blanks having a transverse perforation terminating at the upper one of said longitudinal perforations, an unperforated duplicating sheet underlying each of said coupon blanks, a ledger or record sheet underlying the last blank in said coupon blank stack having only a single longitudinal perforation aligned with the uppermost of the horizontal perforations on said coupon blanks, the unperforated duplicating sheet between the last blank in said coupon blank stack and said ledger sheet having duplicating material overlying only a portion of said ledger sheet, whereby information may be inscribed on said blanks and the pertinent portion of said information transferred to said ledger sheet in a single operation and the duplicating sheets removed by tearing the coupon blanks at their upper stub portion, the longitudinal perforations facilitating separation of said coupon blanks into individual coupons, the transverse perforation on the coupon blanks defining individual coupon stubs.

3. A pre-printed coupon blank assembly adapted to form a coupon book comprising a series of stacked coupon blanks each having a series of longitudinal perforations dividing the blanks into an upper stub portion and a plurality of coupons, each of said blanks having a transverse perforation terminating at the upper one of said longitudinal perforations, an unperforated duplicating sheet underlying each of said coupon blanks, whereby information may be inscribed on said blanks in a single operation and the duplicating sheets removed by tearing the coupon blanks at their upper stub portion, the horizontal perforationsfacilitating separation of said coupon blanks into a plurality of individual coupon stacks with the transverse perforation on the coupon blanks defining coupon stubs, said coupons being sequentially marked so that the coupon stacks may be arranged in stacked relation to provide a book of coupons arranged in the desired sequence.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,637,156 Mirski July 26, 927 2,677,555 McMillan et a1. May 4, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 724,040 Great Britain Feb. 16, 1955 

